China: China’s Auditor Says State Firms Falsified Revenue and Profit

Some of China’s biggest state firms were found to have falsified revenue and profits, while some state lenders doled out loans to unqualified borrowers, the nation’s auditor said amid an intensifying crackdown on corruption.

Fourteen state-owned companies, including State Grid Corp., Cosco Group and China Southern Power Grid Co., falsified 29.8 billion yuan ($4.8 billion) in revenue and 19.4 billion yuan in profits, the National Audit Office said in a statement on its website Sunday. The office issued its 2014 work report Sunday, along with several statements and audit reports for individual companies.

A key focus of the National Audit Office’s work last year was revealing violations in the approval, allocation and management of public funds, state-owned assets and resources, the office said in the statement. The comments come amid an anti-graft campaign by President Xi Jinping — who calls corruption a threat to the Communist Party’s survival — that has snared about 100,000 officials in the past two years.